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Boulder organizers plan local 'Occupy Wall Street' rally

By Amy Bounds/Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
10/09/2011 08:42:12 PM MDT

Updated:
10/10/2011 09:44:07 AM MDT

A protester with Occupy Wall Street holds up and wears signs in Zuccotti Park, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011 in New York. Having started in New York, Occupy Wall Streets demonstrations now take place all across the United States, as protesters speak out against corporate greed and the gap between the rich and the poor. (Associated Press)

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement is coming to Boulder.

At least two different groups have formed to get demonstrations going here, with the first rally planned Saturday in front of One Boulder Plaza. Students at the University of Colorado at Boulder also are planning activities later this month around the same theme.

“People are feeling hopeful that there could be some real systemic changes coming out of grassroots activism,” said Carolyn Bninski with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.

The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center is helping organize Saturday's event, along with hosting a sign making night on Thursday. Saturday's event emulates Occupy Wall Street, a demonstration that has drawn thousands of protestors daily for several weeks in the Manhattan financial district to protest big business and misguided government.

“We feel the big investment banks are responsible for the economic crisis that is facing the United States and many other countries around the world,” Bninski said. “We need to take back our democracy. Banks do have a function on our society but not, out of pure greed, to speculate and destroy people's savings and jobs.”

Along with Saturday's planned demonstration, CU students are organizing a rally and keynote talk on Oct. 20.

Scott Silber, a community organizer and CU graduate, is giving the keynote address on “A Threat to Themselves and Others: Intervention on the Corporate Addiction to Power.”

“The general theme is that the one percent got a taste of power,” Silber said. “They started using it and abusing it. They're so addicted, they're not able to stop themselves.”

He said it's become “painfully obvious” that an intervention is needed. He pointed to the work of activists to pass a constitutional amendment abolishing “corporate personhood.”

In Denver, the number of tents along a strip of Broadway where demonstrators are protesting continues to grow, even as the Colorado State Patrol has warned against camping out. Sunday more than 20 tents and makeshift shelters — double the number clustered there the day before — were set up near Veterans Memorial west of the state Capitol.

Activist Karen Conduff said she's hoping a similar camp will spring up in Boulder.

“I have my tent ready,” she said. “We want to get a core group together to start a true occupation.”

She said her goal in demonstrating is to push more people to educate themselves on “what the Wall Street crowd is doing to our democracy.”

“That's what this movement is really helping to do, to spur people to open their eyes,” she said.

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